The problem of understanding a foreign language is not a new problem by any means. For centuries mankind has struggled with the problem of learning to read, write, and speak foreign languages. Over the years, many different theories have been set forth on what the most effective method is to teach a foreign language to someone who has no basis or underlying knowledge of the foreign language. One popular theory is to associate the unfamiliar foreign word with a familiar object or context. For example, in the sentence “I went to the library, checked out a libro and began to read” the reader associates the word “libro” with a book through the context of the sentence instead of trying to remember that “libro” means “book” in Spanish. Many foreign language teachers believe that this is one of the better methods of teaching a foreign language to a new student.
With the advent of computers, many different types of language translation software programs have been invented. However, most of these translation programs are not effective educational tools because they translate the entire text of a sentence or paragraph automatically and present the student with the completely translated sentence or paragraph. The student does not gain any knowledge or understanding about the vocabulary or grammatical rules of the foreign language by reading a completely translated sentence or paragraph in the foreign language. To alleviate this problem and improve the foreign language teaching process, many different methods have been disclosed over the years. An improved translation method was disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,486,111 (the '111 patent) entitled “Foreign Language Teaching Aid and Method.” The '111 patent discloses a method of placing the two sentences (native and foreign) next to each other and highlighting certain words and phrases that are translations of each other. While the '111 patent is a useful tool, a need still exists for a more basic method of teaching a foreign language to a student who is unfamiliar with the foreign language.
In recent years, electronic books or e-books have become the newest supplement to teaching aids. An e-book is a book that is stored on a small, handheld computing device with a large LCD screen. The student can read through the book in much the same manner as he or she would read through a printed book. E-books have the additional benefit of allowing definitions, annotations, or commentary to be attached or otherwise associated with a word or page in the e-book thorough a hyperlink. This is useful because the definition, annotation, or commentary is still accessible but does not clutter the page in the e-book. A foreign language teaching tool that utilized e-book technology would represent a significant advance in foreign language teaching aids.
Furthermore, students are more motivated to learn the foreign language if they are able to learn the foreign language in a context in which they have an interest, such as literature. Therefore, a need exists for a method of teaching a foreign language to a student which allows the student to learn the foreign language in the context of literature preferred by the student. Moreover, a need exists for an apparatus that will allow the student to customize the translation process of the literature and change the order, rate, and frequency of translated words.
Therefore, a need exists for a foreign language teaching tool which will allow the student to recognize the meaning of newly introduced foreign words by their context in the sentence. There also exists a need for a foreign language teaching aid in the form of an e-book. Additionally, a need exists for a foreign language teaching tool which will be interesting to the student. Furthermore, a need exists for a foreign language teaching aid apparatus and method that will allow the student to customize the teaching style to his/her learning pace.